Tuesday, May 07, 2024
Beginning as early as 600 B.C., the ancient Greeks created an ambitious road partially paved with stone, that spanned across the entire Isthmus of Corinth to haul boats or cargo from one port to the other, to avoid a 220 mile voyage over water
Frank Wootton, the RAF’s official artist
Wootton had always been involved in charity work. During the war he sketched fellow servicemen for a pound a head, raising £250 for the Wings For Victory fundraiser.
Fitting then, that at Wootton’s funeral in Sussex, April 1998, a Spitfire performed a victory roll.
Widely hailed as the finest aviation artist of all time, Frank Wootton OBE (1911-1998) is equally well known and regarded for his artistic work in both equestrian and landscape fields. But his skills could be said to have been honed, be they in pencil, oils or in charcoal, during the earlier portion of his career, drawing and painting motor cars.
During the mid-1930s, Wootton’s employer pitched for Ford of Dagenham’s promotional business. The carmaker was seeking high quality, American-style illustrations, but most importantly, in colour. Just about to leave the office one evening, Wootton’s boss breathlessly crested the stairs imploring him to get this done ‘before the morning’. Wootton’s all-nighter paid dividends, for Grafton won the Ford contract, keeping them busy for years with many colourful front-page illustrations and adverts.
With war declared, having volunteered for combat duty, Wootton became the official RAF war artist, which led to a complete change in subject matter.
After hostilities ceased, BOAC flew him wherever they landed, commissioning all manner of flight-centric artwork
Wootton’s life altered once more when he was offered the Sporting Artist position at UK weekly, The Motor, covering Grands Prix, Le Mans, the Monte Carlo rally et al, which brought him into the orbit of legendary drivers such as Stirling Moss and Juan-Manuel Fangio.
Then a chance to influence a car’s design presented itself in the shape of Jaguar’s William Lyons. Impressed by Wootton’s work, the Jaguar boss had a job for him. “It was the 2.4,” Wootton recalled. “There was a line running along the car which at certain angles appeared kinked and Bill wanted me to iron it out, confident that my artistic skills would be up to mustard.” Adding a new curve to the windscreen along with altering the back end a little.
Rolls Royce came calling, seeking artwork for their 1955 S-Type. “Being a commercial secret, I was asked to keep to country lanes when searching for locations to draw it in. I had that car for two weeks. When they sent a man round to collect it, he took ages in making sure I hadn’t scratched it. Three hours passed and Rolls phoned to ask if their chap was still there. An hour after he’d left, I got another call saying he’d wrapped it round a tree. It was to be the last car I got paid to paint.” The commitment to other fields proved stronger.
Wootton was also a keen motorist, purchasing a 1913 Morris Oxford Bullnose, registration plate CF 1177, for the princely sum of £100 in 1950 from Eastbourne Morris agency, Parkinson and Polson.
Having originally been owned by Arthur Conan Doyle, the car had been loitering in the rear of the garage for years, one of the old boys remarking that he’d driven it back in the late twenties. After evicting a family of mice which had been residing there and giving the carburetor a once-over, the Morris started first time, subsequently taking Wootton and his wife on many a jaunt. The Bullnose even won him a prize for the ownership of the oldest Morris then known
I stumbled onto a website focused on writng about cars, and found they'd made a couple articles on art cars, and looking through to see about "new to me" examples, found that "driventowrite.com" had found my article on Delaunay!
that delights me, as I think I may have the most comprehensive coverage of Delaunay's art online. https://justacarguy.blogspot.com/search?q=Delaunay
Monday, May 06, 2024
Employees at Tampa International Airport took photos with a stuffed animal that was accidentally left behind and later presented the owner of the toy, a six-year-old boy named Owen, with a book of the photos that depicted his adventures.
A Hobbes went on a “great adventure” at Tampa International Airport in Florida after being accidentally left behind by his young owner in 2015
Owen Lake, 6, traveled to Houston with his parents, and was “distraught” after realizing he lost Hobbes.
Owen and Hobbes were reunited when Owen flew back to Tampa, where staff surprised the boy with a photo book of his favorite tiger’s vivid adventures at the airport while away from his owner.
https://abcnews.go.com/Lifestyle/airport-takes-boys-lost-stuffed-animal-tiger-great/story?id=31803188
A late model pickup truck was pulled up from a lake in relation to an auto theft case from six years ago.
just more evidence that my notion of looking in EVERY lake for submerged stolen vehicles will find them.
A Florida man was taken to jail after he intentionally carved his name into a Broward Sheriff's Office marked patrol car last week
Enderlin Leonce, 33, of Margate, had used a metal tool to etch "the name is Enderlin Leonce" on the driver-side hood of the patrol vehicle.
The officer met with Leonce at his home, and that's when Leonce allegedly made multiple statements, including, "I did it. I committed a crime and I should be going to jail." He was also found carrying metal joint pliers with green paint transfer on the tip of the tool, the affidavit stated.
In 2019, Disney got a pair of remotely piloted Boeing CV2 Cargo electrical vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, and had the imagineers outfit them with X-wing “body shells” and flew them over Walt Disney World
The themed CAV is a gift from Boeing and Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development and will go on display with the vertical flight collection, at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum’s Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Virginia beginning May 3.
The National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., is located at Sixth Street and Independence Avenue S.W. The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center is located in Chantilly, Virginia, near Washington Dulles International Airport. It is open daily from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). Admission is free, but there is a $15 fee for parking.
thank you George!
Sunday, May 05, 2024
there once was a Pontiac plan to have a large Firebird decal on the deck lid.
Revision 7 also revealed that Pontiac intended to accent the plateau of the Sprint-6 hood with a smaller, but similar bird.
California $100 billion boondoggle project for high speed trains, produced very little, and has little to nothing to show for that fortune blown on the project, except this bridge that does nothing, and took 7 years to build
here is the “Fresno River Viaduct,” high speed railway bridge after 3 years and 11 billion dollars
Both sides of Interstate 95 in Norwalk have fully reopened on Sunday, days after the 8000 gallons of gas burned the overpass, and area around the semi tanker trailer, for about 50 feet in every direction
“It is truly amazing that in less than 80 hours from that fiery crash Thursday that shut down traffic in both directions, the highway again is fully open,” Governor Lamont said in part in a statement.
Engineers have also been working to develop preliminary replacement plans for the Fairfield Avenue Bridge. The designs are expected to be completed within the next two weeks with the replacement expected to take about a year.
"Unfortunately, there is such a backlog on steel and materials. We're going to be, you know, up to a year before that bridge can get replaced," said Morgan.
it cost about 8k to get a Tesla truck wrapped... so that better turn out good. This one impressed me, it's common, but still cool, the flying tigers motif
skip all the wasted time and bullshit until minute 6. Nothing worth seeing there. Pure promotion BS
Again, skip to the 6 minute mark
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/this-man-made-his-cybertruck-rust-on-purpose-my-wife-is-going-to-hate-it-233419.html#
there is only one Tesla truck on Nantucket... and the driver? Kinda stupid. That's a problem, when you are the ONLY Tesla truck on the island, you can't claim someone else did the stupid things you were photographed doing
The first Tesla Cybertruck to visit Nantucket rolled off the Steamship Authority ferry Thursday afternoon. It didn't take long to make an impression.
The vehicle was first spotted by people on Main Street, where it was parked directly on a crosswalk. But that was just the beginning.
A few hours later the truck reappeared, and this time it was stuck in the sand at Eel Point.
amazing... that these are easy enough to engineer, that they were able to be built, without electric tools, about 700 years ago. If well-maintained, a noria will have complete replacement of its wooden parts every 15 years.
These water wheels, also known as the Noria of Hama, and the Roman like aqueduct, in modern Syria on the river Orontes
A series of 17 norias, historic water-raising machines for irrigation, along the Orontes River in the city of Hama, Syria.
They are tall water wheels with box-like water collection compartments embedded around their rims. As the river flows, it pushes these water collection boxes under water, where they quickly fill up, then are driven up to the top of the wheel where they empty into an aqueduct. The aqueduct can carry the water to supply buildings, gardens and farmland.
Seventeen of Hama's original norias have been conserved. They are notable for their medieval origins, for their large number and for the enormous size of two of them - for nearly 500 years the tallest waterwheels in the world.
Constructed without power tools, probably without chain hoists... likely only with human and ox power.
Wake County Bookmobile driver and librarian India White, July 1966
White drove the bookmobile all over the county for 20 years. She had dozens of assistants over the years, many either not able to learn the routes or drive a manual transmission. White died in 2000 at 92 years of age.
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